Live orchestral pop album in a day: “Petty Troubles” record release w/ Van Dyke Parks

My favorite scrappy Oakland story of the new year involves Matt Montgomery, a video game developer and multi-instrumentalist who came to our attention last year when he was trying to raise $7,000 — hoping to assemble a 30-musician orchestra to record an album of his songs in a single day.

Despite falling about $1,700 short of the Indiegogo goal, Montgomery’s team forged on, recording the five-track “Petty Troubles” album in a cramped Oakland warehouse in an insane eight-hour time period. I watched the video of their impressive first track on YouTube last week (see above). “A Thousand Years” is a beautiful and majestic song, and there’s an added element of triumph knowing it happened in such a fleeting moment by recording industry standards. Montgomery’s team includes orchestrator Brian Adam McCune and producer Brendan West, and videographer Isaac Pingree, who contributes a documentary to the multimedia project.

They’ll relive the magic at the “Petty Troubles” record release party, 4 p.m. this Sunday at the Malonga Casquelourd Center. The event includes an appearance by legendary composer/lyricist/producer Van Dyke Parks, and David Moschler’s Awesome Orchestra.

Album cover: R. Black

With two young kids and a lot of work-related events on my schedule, I go out for fun by myself almost never. I’ll be at an Oakland cultural event twice this weekend — at the Chabot Space & Science Center Laserium show Saturday night, and at the Petty Troubles release on Sunday.

Tickets for the “Petty Troubles” release with Van Dyke Parks are available here. Hope to see you there.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.